Last weekend I finished reading Ciceronis filius by U.E Paoli (PDF, 8 MB). Thinking that it is worth reading if someone is learning Latin, I decided to write a short review.

The sub-title gives a good impression of what it is about: puerilis narratio ad domesticos Romanorum mores illustrandos in usum scholarum redacta. However, this is also a bit misleading. Contrary to other Latin readers, especially those geared towards absolute beginners (e.g. Reed's Julia or Fay's Carolus et Maria), it is not "puerile". The book (91 pages of actual text with many pictures) instead uses the story of Cicero's son to illustrate Roman life. The story providing the framework begins with the birth of Cicero's son and ends with the death of his father, drawing an often quite critical (but not entirely damning) picture of the father. Filling out the framework are passages covering many aspects of Roman life (the material world, customs). The most important ones:

Birth and customs associated with it

Names

House (also about the insulae)

Nuptials

Feasts, Eating, Kitchen (including utensils)

Children's games

School (and utensils)

Medicine

Furniture: beds and tables

Mail service

Funerals

Villa rustica

Travel (and carts)

War (trated only very briefly)

Clothes, hats, shoes

Baths

Gladiators

All in all, this is a really interesting reader and can be recommended especially due to the mix of story and information.

Language: Paoli uses the entire Latin grammar (including subjunctive, conditional sentences, etc.). The difficulty level stays the same from the beginning to the end. I think that it is a good book to read right after finishing learning Latin grammar.

Thank you for posting this resource and your review. Even though I like to think of myself as someone who has progressed beyond "school texts" in my Latin, I'm in the process of reading through this now. I've always had huge gaps in my knowledge of day to day Roman life, and this is very helpful on that front. Also, as much fun as it is to struggle through some work of great historical or literary importance, sometimes it's satisfying to just sit down and read a straight forward Latin text page by page, enjoying being able to understand it at the first go.